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February 07, 2008 |
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P.S. I Want My Leg Back
FOUND by Jackie
in Ontario, Canada
I work in a physiotherapy clinic and found this in the kids' corner. It broke my heart.
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All the Basics March 18, 2006 |
Money Grabbers... December 23, 2005 |
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We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
The back, as far as I can tell:
when I was 4 my parents ded cause of a car accident and I was adopted now I'm in grade too that's a little story about my life
Roxy
Can't really make out the post script, though. "I want my leg back"?
I quite like her drawing.
thanks for the back's message - satisfied a gnawing desire.
any attempt at what's running off the first page? "...cut off because it___"
interesting you said "her," i've been thinking "him" - maybe because i knew a "him" who had his leg removed.
anyone eler hear of those people who think their limbs are foreign and want them to be cut off? what an aweful situation. its a crazy world
i think it is 'cut off because it had cancer' ?
I think it's "now I'm in grade 4 so That's a little story..." on the back. And it looks like you're right about the PS, Sara; it's very difficult to read, but the Finder's title confirms it. (I hadn't even read the title first, though.) And it's signed "Roxy", with a sad face. From the front, I'd thought the girl's name was Romy.
This is heart-achingly sad. I hope that wherever she is, Roxy is living a full, happy life today, with her adopted family!! I love her drawing, too. I love the little "beauty mark."
for having only two highlighters and a blue ballpoint, this is a great portrait.
Funny how the child assumed it would be read by only one person. Now it, theoretically, could reach the world. Heartbreaking.
Everyone thinks this find is sad and I would almost agree except for the fact...
Her portrait is smiling.
I <3 this find.
I have two legs. Should I not smile, I would be ashamed of myself. God bless this little girl.
Well, I tried to think of something - anything - witty and amusing to say about this find but, no, nothing.
Good luck Roxy.
I thought the leg-loss was because of cancer too, but her parents died in a car accident and now she's adopted? That is a truly heartbreaking story.
Wow.
(thanks for putting name email location back together)
Roxy.... she sounds like a sweetheart. Hugs.
This find really puts things into perspective. When I start thinking about whining about stuff I need to think about this and realize that there are people (like this little girl) that take whatever comes their way and still manage to keep going with a positive outlook. Roxy is aces in my book. Awesome find.
Saddest find ever. I hope this kid's adoptive parents take good care of her.
The heartbreaking part is because of the loss of her parents and her leg...but certainly not the "being adopted" part. Heartbreaking would be having her shunted from one foster home to another, or one "care facility" to another, for the rest of her life.
She's smiling because she was adopted by people who wanted her so much they didn't mind about the missing parts.
And it does say her leg was cut off "because it had cancer."
She's a survivor. Note it does NOT say "Because *I* had cancer." She doesn't identify with the disease, it isn't part of her identity. It was something that happened.
What a fighter. I bet this kid will end up as CEO of a great business that actually makes things that are useful and ecofriendly.
Way to go, Roxy!
Appears to me that Roxy is being pretty matter-of-fact about the whole deal. She doesn't use the word "sad." Her self-portrait is sort of smiling and is NOT crying. She's just telling "a little story" about her life. She's dealing with it. The rest of you folks should stop handing out the hankies for a good cry.
Roxy is wise beyond her years.
the name Roxy, to me, just sounds like a fighter and a survivor's name. Could be why the portrait is smiling, and she remains positive. Love you Roxy! Keep it up!
Be happy, her drawing is smiling!
When I saw the purple hoodie I thought finally, something pretty! But those brick colored jeans, ugh.
I don't think that model is in America either.
My heroes: Helen Keller, Anne Frank, & Roxy. Thanks for the reality check. I'm counting my blessings today.
Awww. Such a strong little girl this Roxy is. I wish that I had as much Oomph that she does when I was younger going through such difficulty but rising above and with a SMILE!
I knew a girl once in a similar situation. She was the lone survivor of a horrible car wreck that took both her parents and half of her leg. She had a plastic prosthetic instead and she drew lots of pictures on it in crayon. It looked really cool but more memorable than the leg was her smile. She was always laughing and smiling and when others would stare or gawk at her situation she would remove the prosthetic and laugh because she liked to see other people's reactions.
This hits way too close to home having just buried a 16 y/o niece who had bone cancer. Like Roxy, my niece was a pretty awesome kid with a great outlook on life even though she'd been dealt a rotten hand. Lessons learned from my neice: never quit, never give up, never waste a moment of your life, always put your best effort into everything you do and always, always, always have a smile to share with everyone.
Good luck, Roxy! Show 'em what your made of, kiddo!
My best friend lost her leg to cancer when she was three, and she is one of the strongest and most amazing ladies that I have ever met. That's not to say she doesn't have some incredibly shitty times, but she makes the most of it and rolls with the punches.
And for some reason she likes to tell small children that her leg got bored and went on holiday.
It's amazing what we humans can handle when we have to, isn't it?
If a 9 year old child can deal with so much and still draw a smiley picture, certainly the rest of us can handle our little ups and downs with grace and a sense of humor.
Well, that is a cute little pick me up.
This would not be a good time to make an ass-kicking contest joke. Not a good time.
I tend to agree with ORINOCO and CURMUDGEON.
The main thing in this girls life is losing her parents. She's a survivor of Cancer, and hopefully going to never die from it. (as they did remove her leg) She also had a family that adopted her that love and nurture her no matter the circumstances. However, it is quite saddening to know that she was dealt such a rock-hard life.
Hang in there ROXY, you're a fighter and fighters DON'T QUIT!
We LOVE your drawing, could it be a passion of yours? Keep it up, when you have a career in life that you love, it's not work at all.
You're in my thoughts and Prayers precious one...
Winston...would that girl's name happen to be Wendy?
Ditto-ing ke in the sunshine van: I think my list of heroes is pretty good, after the last two days.
I mirrored the image and the back deffinetly says: When I was 4 my parents died ? of a car accident and I was adopted. Now I'm in grade 4 so that's the story about my life.
There is a little more but I can't read it.
the question mark isnt actually on her note but something written there was being covered by the words in the front of the page so i couldnt tell what it said.
All right people. The world isn't so bad that this kid has to be the hero of the day. Imagine how bad it is for us today. Grad photos. Hair appointments. Teacher's high on oxycodone. Pity us. Please!
Flargy, everyone one knows it's Wendy.
No, her name was susan. She was a childhood friend and her grandparents ended up taking her and her brother in. Her brother was older and wasn't with them at the time of the incident. I've always wondered what happened to her...they were my cousin's neighbors and when my cousin moved away I didn't see her anymore. This all happened in VA.
Turbo: I think I love you.
Roxy: Way to keep the optimism alive!
Winston,
I had to ask, because when I was about 13, I briefly dated a girl named Wendy in exactly the same situation you described, right down to the crayons and the old "pulling off the leg to freak out the kids" trick.
Turbo,
Who needs two whole legs, when you have wings to fly above the clouds?
It really is amazing how people can take something catastrophic and keep on moving. I've been doing a series of memorial tattoos for a family over the past 3 months or so. The sisters were in this horrific accident where they were ejected from the car, hit by another truck, in ICU for a month- pretty much reconstructed. Their parents died in the ambulance. But to talk to them, you would have no clue. It was nothing for one to tell me, "I'm so happy I got the hearing in my left ear back." Me: "Did you have an ear infection and it was all plugged or something?" Her: "Oh no, I mean from when the surgeon sewed it back on."
You can either take tragedy and let it sink you, or use it to build strength.
Way to go Roxy :)
Yeah..."pulling off the leg to freak out the 'kids' trick" was how we became friends. She was running across the street to my cousin's house and at the time I thought she just had a walking impairment but when she got to the edge of the yard and saw me staring at her she took off the prosthetic. It was the first time I had seen someone with only one leg. My eyes must have fallen out of my head because she couldn't stop laughing at my reaction. I really thought she had pulled her leg apart.
I used to teach 4th graders how to draw faces. This is pretty good.
Roxy for President....now this is a candidate I can get behind!!!!!!
Roxy is an excellent speller!
And I have the flu? Yeah, boo hoo for me! Thanks for putting it all in perspective Roxy. You rock.
I hope Roxy becomes a writer and writes a book about her life and her experiences. I would certainly love to read it.
You never know, Winston. Roxy could easily be a one-legged orphan leading an incredibly tedious, boring life undeserving of an autobiography. I know pirates are all the rage these days, but not everyone missing a limb engages in exploits worth documenting.
She has the makings of a writer but your right Flargy...it's hard to tell whether she will find her life worth documenting. I feel that every life has an interesting story behind it, I guess that's why I love history.
As far as Pirates...I hear they are a dying breed. I hear Wonderland is going to be the next biggest rage...lol
Why do you feel sorry for this kid? You have no right to pity anyone. It takes away an individual's right to decide how he will run her life.
Maybe Roxy can write an autobiography about Tess. Tess, are you missing anything good? Got any cool diseases? Own a pirate ship? Roxy can call it "Pity Party".
I think I'm onto something here.
This has been a great discussion today! Y'all are all my heros, as well as Roxy.
Turbo: Your joke yesterday about Helen Keller, Dennis Rodman and Anne Frank was just about the funniest thing ever.
We all have a story.
Where do you get pity from Tess?
Exactly Pepper...some may be more interesting than others but to me they are all interesting.
Turbo, you are hilarious...I'm still chuckling.
Thanks Nadine...I've never been considered a hero!
=) Well, that's all I have to comment today.
tess made an interesting "slip" in the above post: .."It takes away an individual's right to decide how he will run her life."
something tells me tess is not feeling much in control these days.
Is saying something's sad the same as pouring pity all over it?
Roxy doesn't say she's sad...she doesn't mention heartbreak. She is stating the facts of her past and seems to fully accept who she is. This is a note of triumph.
After working with children with a variety of disabilities, I can honestly say that very few of these kids recognized they were disabled. Till someone mentioned "awww, how sad" to them.
I know why the name "Roxy" sounds like a fighter. It's because it rhymes with Moxy, and she sure has it. Good luck Roxy.
If the spam questions get any harder, I'm going to have to go back to fourth grade.
Turbo in the Thunderdome,
If Roxy wrote a story about my life it would be a biography. An autobiography is a story about oneself.
Roxy may call me for the details of my life. I will be glad to share the treasures of my time here on earth. She can put her spin on it...no one is ever satisfied with an account of one's life by another, so she might as well have some fun with it all.
We've had a lot of heart wrenching kid finds lately. And plenty of sharing. Do you guys have any debauchery or threatening letters in the chute? Or lost ugly cat posters? Something to cheer me up.
i don't pity roxy, not at all. I admire her strength.
what's sad is that html tags are now allowed, and i dont know how to do them
<B> woo Hoo!!</b> Thanks, Jason and co.!!
Mona, it's easy. Just use the greater than/less than brackets for the html commands. I'll use regular old parentheses for this example. (b) tells the browser to start seeing things in bold and (/b) ends the command. (or I for italic, etc.
<a href="http://foundmagazine.com/find/294"& best friend... with benefits.</a>
Oh, and for a hyperlink, which yaaay.. it works! you put (a href="paste your URL here")type your link title here (/a) closes the command.
(replacing the parentheses with < > the greater than/ less than brackets.
What fun!!
<b>Yay!</b>
Now I'm not so bummed about Roxy.
Wow. Her strength is inspiring. She lives her life with whatever she's been given and does it without an ounce of self-pity. Wonder how she turns out...
I really like this find. I like the colors, the smile, the way the words are written next to the drawing, and the way you can see through to the words that on the back.
Oh good, I finally got one of those new spam protection questions.
Good night, Roxy.
I hope that Roxy reads this
It's more a kind of 'trying to smile' smile than a real smile. Or maybe it's the startled eyes that make it seem like that.
Brave girl, I really hope she sees this and knows how much she has inspired us.
Tess, you are correct. An oversight on my part. But about that pirate ship....
<a ref="http://www.foundmagazine.com/find/678&quo is for you, Roxy</a>
You guys stop it! I had to come back because I can't figure out the math problem for tomorrow or the next day. I'm dyslexic and I start counting forwards then backwards. I was gonna tell Chrome thanks for the bold and italics info.
You're welcome Vill in..
someone mentioned on another page to check the spam Q before you type your comment. If you want a different one, hit refresh. Or if you don't notice until you've already typed your comment, just cut or copy your text, then refresh, and paste it into a fresh comment box with a different spam question. (I had to do the math earlier: 28X15 is 4:20. those silly Found Folk.)
Looks like we're grounded from using HTML for a while, anyway.
Hey guys maybe Roxy's life isn't that bad. The letter might be a clever scheme devised by the therapist. Lets call it "It-Could-Be-Worse Therapy." It would be just a little too awful that Roxy walked away from the car crash that claimed her parents, only to loose a leg to cancer. Maybe the therapist was trying to get Roxy to put things in perspective. Sure you've only got one leg, but at least your parents are alive and well!
Its a really sunny day out. I'm feeling very glass is half full.
Oh nuts, whats 4 times 7? Where's my calculator...